Europe must exert pressure to cut gas emissions

The EU must reach a consensus on climate policy if it wants to play a leading role in UN-led talks on a new pact to cut greenhouse gases, a Polish official said on Tuesday.

A package of climate measures proposed by the European Commission - the EU executive - aims, among other things, to cut carbon dioxide emissions by a fifth by 2020 compared with 1990 levels. However, it faces opposition from some member states and from the car industry.

France, holder of the rotating EU presidency, hopes to forge a compromise among the 27 member states by December when negotiators meet in Poznan, Poland, to discuss a new global deal on limiting greenhouse gas emissions.

"For Poland, the current proposal is still more a threat than an opportunity, I think. If the EU wants to set an example in Poznan, it has to work out a consensus within the bloc first," Piotr Serafin, a deputy head of the office of the Committee for European Integration, told a climate change panel organised by a pro EU think-tank.

"Only then will it be able to act as a role model on the world stage. Tension in the global negotiations will be between rich and poor. And you cannot force China or India into a deal. Europe must work out its own consensus in order to exert pressure on the global stage."

Poland fears ambitious EU goals for curbing emissions would result in energy price increases of up to 70 per cent. With fellow ex-communist states Hungary, Slovakia, Bulgaria and Romania, it has signed a statement calling for more debate on Brussels' plans.